Real Artist - an excerpt from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Read about the narrator’s opinion of art and think if you agree with him

 Real Artist

            Mmm, one does have to learn to look at art. But it’s up to the artist to use language that can be understood. Most of these jokers don’t want to use language you and I can learn; they would rather sneer because we ‘fail’ to see what they are driving at. If anything. Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence. ‘Artist’ is a word I avoid for the same reason, I hate to be called ‘Doctor.’[1] But I am an artist. Most of my stuff is worth reading only once. And not even once by a person who knows the little I have to say. But I am an honest artist. What I write is intended to reach the customer – and affect him, if possible with pity and terror... or at least divert the tedium of his hours. I never hide from him in a private language, nor am I seeking praise from other writers for ‘technique’ or other balderdash. I want praise from the customer, given in cash because I’ve reached him – or I don’t want anything. Support for the arts – merde! A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore!

(Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land)